Of Husbands and Hushed Conversations
by TheLadyMuse
Summary: That one Flash/B99 crossover (But seriously, Holt and Singh gay married police captains must meet up) Singhaway, ColdWave and Raymond/Kevin


Throwaway reference to Nirejseki's _Stayin' Alive_

Okay, so it's longer than I thought, the end dips into darkness but ends happily.

Okay, so here's the thing: the meta problem is pretty widespread.

Central City is still the main hub, _but _New York's got a problem that is escalating by the day.

Enter the JCCMT from Central: the Joint Counter Criminal Meta Taskforce. Created by a partnership of the CCPD and Star Labs, it's headed by Captain David Singh and Director of Research Francisco Ramon. Also on the taskforce is CSI Barry Allen aka the Flash, PI Ralph Dibny aka the Elongated Man, Detective Eddie Thawne, former supervillain now Mayor cum vigilante Leonard Snart aka Captain Cold, 'transportation specialist' (also reformed Rogue) Sam Scudder aka Mirror Master and technology consultant Hartley 'Pied Piper' Rathaway, who's only not an active member because he's very married to Captain Singh.

No one is all too certain how the Rogues were reformed. Central keeps their collective mouths shut and there may have been a crisis that the Rogues defrayed because _it's their city too for chrissakes you morons._

_Anyway._

Central wasn't too happy to lose their taskforce but when you have the Mayor of New York _begging _for some help, what can you do?

So Mayor Snart did the smart thing, he assured Mr. New York the taskforce would give a week long seminar, they'll be there in a couple days, science science learning learning, etcetera. He then appointed his sister in charge for the next couple days and dragged his husband home after issuing a memo to members of the taskforce, advising that they take the time to prepare or spend time with their loved ones.

It wasn't exactly a _tearful _farewell, but there were kisses exchanged on the tarmac after Len gave one last brief to the Deputy Mayor (Hartley had _not _been any happier than Mick to be told to stay in Central).

Cisco had accessed the police network (he hadn't even had to hack it because STAR Labs was now responsible for all police processing), giving briefs on the officers who'd answered the calls, snorting when he saw the file of their captain.

Clearing his throat, Cisco read pointedly

"Captain Raymond Holt, black, sixty, married to Kevin Cozner, decorated Captain…" He trails off amidst snickers. David shakes his head, but doesn't say anything. He's a cop, right now, not a husband.

The 99 wasn't sure what to expect of the JCCMT, but they liked what they got. Well, Amy wasn't too sure what to think about an all male group, but she kept that to herself.

It wasn't until day three of the day long seminar that anything of interest happened, though.

Barry and Cisco were quietly bickering over a some science-machine reading thing when David finally barked

"Would you just send it to Rathaway already?"

Cisco, who was frustrated with the inconsistencies he and Barry were disagreeing over, snarked

"Oh sure, go running to your husband when we're not sure what to do." He seemed to reconsider that when David loomed over him, glowering as he sneered

"At least _my husband _knows how to work lab equipment."

Everyone paused.

The taskforce guys cracked up as the precinct froze.

Len drawled

"If we're talking husbands, can I call my old flame?" Barry scowled, pointing at his friend and admonishing

"_No. _That pun- Just no."

Holt cleared his throat and asked Singh curiously

"You are also… homosexual?"

It was like the sun came out when Singh smiled dreamily and replied

"Yeah, Hartley and I… we've been married five years and he's-"

"Fucking amazing." Eddie blurts, rushing to add when David's expression quickly becomes stormy

"I've never heard him complain about the hours you work, boss. He knows everyone at the station because they matter to you. I _know _he's the one who rounded up the teenagers and tutored them through SATs because we had that murder case at the same time as a couple different trials. I've never met someone like him, someone who treats the privilege he was born into as an _option._" Eddie pauses, tacking on more quietly

"I'd know." David nods, displeased expression easing as Barry tosses in

"He's a good man to have in the lab or at your back."

Raymond wonders, then, if he looks as odd as David had, with that dreamy expression on his face, when he thinks or talks about Kevin.

Davids' busy, packing up after the seminar, when Raymond Holt introduces his husband. The other Captain had originally offered to mentor David, but he'd declined as politely as he could. Len and Mick had somehow fallen into step as the 'gay dads' of Central and they were more than enough. He had asked to be introduced to Kevin, though, because he hoped to gain some insight into Hartley's situation. Eddie and Barry'd been right, of course, that Hartley's amazing and never complains, and David would like to _keep _his younger, beautiful husband.

However, as he makes small talk with Raymond and Kevin, he realizes Kevin _can't _give him the insight he'd wanted. The way they communicate, the things they say to each other… it's totally opposite him and Hartley.

These men are older, wearier, and that's to be expected. But, there's a fine tension between them, like there had been between Barry and Iris after Eddie's resurrection. Like one was afraid the other was going to make a choice that would hurt one or both of them. It puzzled David, a little, because given how long these two had been married, surely something like that had been worked out?

After all, between Eobard's manipulations and the Rathaways refusal to care that their son loved them, his and Hartley's marriage had suffered- he'd nearly lost his Hartley, the caring, kind musician to his own rage and bitterness- but they'd worked through it. Sure, he still wasn't entirely happy with his husband's decision to go streetside but with Len as Mayor and Captain of the Rogues, Hartley was never without backup.

Making a decision, David asked Holt and Kevin to grab a cup of coffee with him and Len while the others finished up. They had the time, so he flagged down Len, told Barry to get one last load of coffees before they hit the road.

Len's not sure what Singh wants, but given he's talking to Holt and his husband, it's probably fair to assume it's a marriage problem. _Of course _David would want to fix the bad knockoffs of him and Hartley. Hell, if it had been a pair of opposites, Len would want to fix them too, just for the similarities to him and Mick that he'd see.

So he sits, and enjoys the confusion playing over the couples' faces when David closes the door to Holts' office and says flatly

"We have half an hour to sort out whatever's troubling you two. Out with it." Before they an protest, Len adds silkily

"He and I know what we're talking about- we've both lived through crises that should have shattered our respective marriages. Mine was even self-inflicted." David's eyes meet his for a long moment, the sympathy and understanding Len finds there oddly soothing.

With some prompting, it all tumbles out.

Probably a mix of Len's Unimpressed Dad™ and David's _I'm a cop, don't even try me _tone.

The story isn't_ entirely _pathetic, probably impressive, even, for civilians. Predictably, they flinch when David bluntly explains what the Particle Accelerator and Eobard Thawne did to his husband. Cozner even looks startled.

Not enough to make them value each other, Len knows.

So he starts his story, clipped facts at first, and details blurred or fudged so as not to give away how bizarre the whole experience had been. He tells them that his husband was tortured into hunting him, they had just barely reconciled (and even then, all the emotional pain had still been raw), he had involuntarily disappeared, only return to a man who was little more than a shell of the vibrant man Mick had been.

Holt's expression cracks, not far into the story.

He doesn't tell them about how the Waverider had gone into a future beyond the Legion of Superheroes, how they had lost his husband, had lost _Mick _because they'd been distracted and hadn't cared to know where he was. Len does not tell them that by the time Sara had realized he was gone, Mick had been in the hands of scientists who had changed his brain chemistry and reprogrammed him to be 'perfect'.

As if the impulsive arsonist with anger issues Len had adored was less of a person.

As if Mick was broken.

Very carefully, Len does not tell these idiots about the hellish year of tears and arguments and fistfights it had taken to get Mick to accept that he still loved him, would take him as he was. He can't tell them about any of that because if he has to talk about it without being able to strangle the crew of the Waverider for costing him his husband, he will start screaming and he's not sure he could stop.

It helps, a little selfishly, to know that David can't think of Eobard Thawne because of how much he wants to kill him again. Because if David Singh, decorated police Captain and all around good dude can want someone dead for hurting his people- hurting his _husband- _then Len's not so monstrous.

He does wonder, though, if David's story, if his story, helped them realize they were being idiots.

The door clicks behind Singh and Snart, both on their phones as they call their husbands on their way out the door.

Kevin stares after them, something tight in his chest.

He can't imagine the pain they've lived through. Can't imagine seeing Raymond writhe in pain for no reason he can discern. Or to see his husband listless and feeling useless and _not hearing him. _The very idea of being separated so violently upsets him, and even more so to realize that _he'd _be the one not to know, if Raymond disappears.

He meets Raymond's eyes, and sees his own shock and fear reflected there.

They need to discuss this, all of it, but to know that they're on the same footing…

David and Len's lesson is clear, then.

To be so clearly in step is a blessing that should not be wasted.

I didn't write it but Coldwave and Singhaway (could we also call them Science Cop or Rogue Captain?) totally had reunion sex.


End file.
